Archives par étiquette : Park, Fine & Brower Literary and Media

THE WITCH AND THE VAMPIRE de Francesca Flores

A queer Rapunzel retelling where a witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn.

THE WITCH AND THE VAMPIRE
by Francesca Flores
‎ Wednesday Books, March 2023
(via Park & Fine Literary)

Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye’s mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother Eugenia needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order to hide that she’s a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement and stop her mother’s plans to destroy the town, Ava must break out, flee to the forest, and seek help from the vampires who live there. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.
Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she’d started to have for Kaye before that terrible night.
But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava’s stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other’s greatest threat―and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.

Francesca Flores is a writer, traveler and linguist. Raised in Pittsburgh, she read every fantasy book she could get her hands on and started writing her own stories at a young age. She began writing the City of Diamond and Steel duology while working as a corporate travel manager. Francesca currently resides in San Francisco.

SECRETS SO DEEP de Ginny Myers Sain

From the bestselling author of Dark and Shallow Lies comes a moody and atmospheric paranormal thriller about a seventeen-year-old girl returning to an exclusive theater camp to uncover the truth of what really happened there twelve years ago, the night her mother drowned.

SECRETS SO DEEP
by Ginny Myers Sain
‎ Razorbill/Penguin BYR, September 2022
(via Park & Fine Literary)

Twelve years ago, Avril’s mother drowned at Whisper Cove theater, just off the rocky Connecticut coastline. It was ruled an accident, but Avril’s never been totally convinced. Local legend claims that the women in the waves—ghosts from old whaling stories—called her mother into the ocean with their whispering. Because, as they say at Whisper Cove, what the sea wants, the sea will have.
While Avril doesn’t believe in ghosts, she knows there are lots of different ways for places, and people, to be haunted. She’s spent the past twelve years trying to make sense of the strange bits and pieces she does remember from the night she lost her mother. Stars falling into the sea. A blinding light. A tight grip on her wrist. The odd sensation of flying. Now, at seventeen, she’s returning to Whisper Cove for the first time, and she might finally unravel the mystery of what really happened.
As Avril becomes more involved with camp director Willa and her mysterious son Cole, Whisper Cove reveals itself to her. Distances seem to shift in the strange fog. Echoes of long-past moments bounce off the marsh. And Avril keeps meeting herself—and her dead mother—late at night, at the edge of the ocean.
The truth Avril seeks is ready to be discovered. But it will come at a terrible cost.

Ginny Myers Sain lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has spent the past twenty years working closely with teens as a director and acting instructor in a program designed for high school students seriously intent on pursuing a career in the professional theatre. Having grown up in deeply rural America, she is interested in telling stories about resilient kids who come of age in remote settings. Her debut novel Dark and Shallow Lies was published by Razorbill in 2021.

CHILDREN WHO COME AND GO de Isi Hendrix

A debut middle-grade novel about a girl convinced she’s possessed by a demon who finds herself apprenticing in the kitchen of an elite magic school, only to discover a shocking secret that will upend her destiny—and potentially lead to her kingdom’s ruin. Irresistibly funny, imaginative, and full of heart – this debut has everything that makes middle-grade great!

CHILDREN WHO COME AND GO
by Isi Hendrix
‎ On submission in the US
(via Park & Fine Literary and Media)

Life in the Swamplands is tough for twelve-year-old orphan Adia. Her family thinks she’s a nuisance, the missionaries make daily life a misery, and the neighbors all believe her to be an ogbanje, a demon-possessed child thought to bring misfortune wherever they go. Adia can’t disagree: she blames herself for the death of her cousin EJ, and when she manifests mysterious, uncontrollable powers, she has to face the possibility that there might be something wicked within her.
When an offer for a kitchen apprenticeship at the faraway Academy of Shamans arrives on the same day she nearly flattens her whole town by accident, Adia seizes the opportunity to flee, with nothing but a small pouch of change, her cat Bubbles, and the hope that she’ll find someone at the school who can help figure out what is wrong with her—and fix it. But at the Academy , Adia stumbles upon a shocking secret. Darian, the ruthless emperor of Zaria, really is possessed, and by a demon said to be more wicked than any other: the mythical Olark. And he’s on the way to the school—for what purpose, no one knows.
Joining forces with a snarky Goddess, a knife-wielding 500-year-old girl, and a status-obsessed soldier boy, Adia goes on a mission through hidden realms to exorcise Olark from Darian, save her kingdom, and herself. But if she is to succeed, she will have to understand the mysterious powers that dwell inside her…and learn who she really is. Whatever choices Adia makes, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Bursting with imagination, heart, and humor, CHILDREN WHO COME AND GO is the type of immersive, action-packed adventure that readers of all ages will want to return to again and again, perfect for fans of magic school stories like SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL and fast-paced fantasy such as ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME. It’s an unputdownable story about carving your own path out in the world, and introduces Isi Hendrix as an exciting new talent in the middle-grade space.

Isi Hendrix is a Pitch Wars 2020 mentee and an Avengers of Color 2020 mentee. She has degrees in anthropology and psychology from USC and has spent many years living in the Amazon and Gabonese rainforests working with shamanic tribes. She is a Black feminist, avid gardener, and, to the horror of her goat meat-loving Nigerian mother, a vegan since kindergarten.

WILLPOWER WORKS de Rob Dial

The host of the Mindset Mentor podcast shares the advice and tools from years of study and interviews that have worked for thousands of coaching clients.

WILLPOWER WORKS:
Stop Sabotaging Yourself and Start Reaching Your Full Potential
by Rob Dial
HarperOne, Fall 2022
(via Park & Fine)

Rob Dial has transformed millions of lives through his role as host of the Mindset Mentor podcast, with 3.5 million downloads a month. His book will use principles of neuroplasticity and mindfulness to help readers change their brains and break out of self-sabotaging patterns. He uses personal stories to demonstrate how to create routines and tools that will help readers to visualize and achieve their success.
Rob receives thousands of DMs from listeners thanking him for helping them break life-long patterns of self-sabotage to finally change careers, lose weight, overcome anxiety, and find meaningful relationships. Self-sabotage keeps us locked in behaviors like procrastination, perfectionism, workaholism, and saying yes to commitments we can’t see through, ultimately preventing us from making progress toward our true goals. Our strongest emotions get the better of us, even with the best intentions. By drawing on principles of neuroplasticity and mindfulness techniques, you can change your brain and develop the willpower to break free of these self-sabotaging patterns.
In WILLPOWER WORKS, Rob will share the brain and personality science he has learned in years of study, the advice and tools that have worked for 1000s of coaching clients, and his personal journey of self-sabotage following the death of his alcoholic father while Rob was in his teens. Rob will promote his book through his podcast platform, which reaches 1.1M unique listeners per month with episodes featuring guests like Matthew McConaughey and Jay Shetty, and Facebook, where he has 2.6M followers and videos regularly go viral, such as “Your Job is a Waste of Your Life” with 99M+ views. He will also engage his network which includes Tom Bilyeu, Aubrey Marcus, Rich Roll, and more. His book would be his first foray into traditional media.

Rob Dial started his career in sales at age 19 and worked his way up to owning and operating a multi-million-dollar office by age 24. After studying with leaders in the personal development field, he launched his podcast, The Mindset Mentor, in 2015. In 2017, he started producing viral Facebook videos that have garnered upwards of 98M+ views, 51M+ view and 23M+ views, with totals well over a billion total views. He now reaches 3M+ followers on social media.

ATTENTION SPAN de Gloria Mark

A book on the crisis of focus, by Dr. Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research, and a leading expert in the fields of attention, multitasking, and human-computer interaction.

ATTENTION SPAN:
The Surprising Science of How We Focus, Why That’s Changing, and How Rhythm Became the New Flow
by Gloria Mark
Hanover Square Press, early 2023
(via Park & Fine)

Psychologist Gloria Mark began researching how technology affects human attention when the first personal computers were beginning to arrive in offices. Over the last 30 years, she has tracked changes in our attention spans, stress levels, and the fundamental way our brains process information.
Now in ATTENTION SPAN, Dr Mark shows how much of what we think we know about attention is wrong. She explores the current crisis of focus and productivity that is so deeply entwined with rising rates of anxiety and depression, and investigates what we might be able to do about it. Delving into the newly celebrated concept of ‘kinetic attention’, she introduces a more balanced understanding of the rhythm between deep focus and less focused states, which may actually serve to make us happier and more productive in the long term.

« Gloria Mark is the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking in our increasingly digital world. Her book is a must-read for anyone concerned about our diminishing attention span. » —Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of A World Without Email and Deep Work

Dr. Gloria Mark is Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research, and a leading expert in the fields of attention, multitasking, and human-computer interaction. Dr. Mark has spoken on stages that include SXSW, Talks at Google, Microsoft Faculty Summit, and the Aspen Ideas Festival, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, NPR, Quartz, Slate, and more.